We Are Visitors
by maembe13
Summary: A bird may love a fish, but where will they live? When Bella meets Edward, she belongs to only one world. When Edward meets Bella, he has just stepped into the complicated space between worlds. Can bridges be built between vastly different cultures and worlds? There is a Kiswahili proverb that says, "A bridge is not where you dwell." Where then will they dwell? All human. OOC.
1. Chapter 1: Freedom

**Chapter 1: Freedom**

Bella Swan drove down the empty freeway with all the windows of her old truck rolled down. She stuck her hands out the window to feel the fresh morning air blow past and she inhaled deeply. This spot on the freeway was the deciding factor in her college choice. The tumbling sandstone behemoths of the Santa Monica Mountains loomed on either side of her and she filled her lungs with the smell of earth and sage and warming rocks. She loved these rocks. The steep trails of the mountains provided her refuge from the chaos of the glittering urban landscape below. The jungles of the L.A. suburbia sprawled on either side of the mountains, but here she could lose herself in the wilds and look at her busy world in silence.

Her stomach still rolled with nervous butterflies. Eighteen, a full-fledged adult, today she would start her first day of college. She reveled in the freedom. No longer bound by the dress code of her conservative private school, she decided to celebrate by wearing everything that had ever gotten her into detention during her high school days.

She smiled at herself in the mirror that morning. While she normally preferred to hide into the background and tended towards very modest outfits, she couldn't help but visually express her freedom from the past constraints of her boring school uniforms. This was a new season and she could reinvent herself or find herself or become herself, she wasn't sure which. All she knew was she wanted the fresh start.

Well, a fresher start at least. As she pulled into the parking lot of Forks College forty minutes later, she immediately waved at Mike and Eric as they lounged next to their cars. She hadn't been quite prepared to leave home completely and she didn't know what to major in, so she decided to attend the local community college. She could still live at home and attend classes with some of her old high school friends from school and the church college group, but it was a new school and location.

"Bella! Bella!" Mike said excitedly. He walked towards her and tried to angle himself for a front hug instead of the more socially acceptable side hug. "I was just telling Eric here that it's good he left the Man Cave early after college group Sunday night. He would have lost all his chance at impressing you through his Halo skills!"

"Come on, man! I hung out all day but I promised my mom I'd be home early so I could get ready for school today!" Eric said with a bright blush as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"You didn't miss anything," Bella said, "except Mike bribing everyone to play video games with him instead of flirting with the college girls. If most of the girls hadn't left early, he would have had to show off his mad skills on Halo by himself."

"Bella! Flirting with college girls? Please! Us manly men, mature college freshman, have much better things to do with our time than notice the well-developed, well-dressed, beautiful and much older college girls who hang on our every word and can't wait for us to ask them out," Mike said with mock seriousness.

"You're fresh meat for a bunch of girls who have either already dated all the other guys in the group or have been rejected by all the other guys in the group. Don't worry, once they get to know you, they will give you more distance," Bella said with a wink.

"And this from my prom date! Bella! You find me so irresistible that you begged me to go to not only one but two proms with you! Come on, it's my rugged good looks, isn't it? My adorable personality? My inviting smile? Or my supreme intellect?" Mike said, leaning down to put his arm around her much shorter shoulder as they walked towards their various morning classes.

"Yep. That's it, Mike. You caught me. I'm hopelessly in love with you. It had nothing to do with the fact that both our significant others broke up with us right before each of our proms and we both found ourselves dateless," Bella responded, rolled her eyes, and deftly slipped out of under his arm.

"I knew it! I'll be in the cafeteria at lunch waiting for all the love notes you write me during your morning classes!" Mike said and waved her good-bye. Eric continued to walk with Bella and looked slightly uncomfortable with their interaction. Bella tried to ease him out of his shyness and into conversation.

"Where you off to?"

"English 101. You?"

"Same! Good. We'll both know someone!"

"So, what's with the getup?" Eric asked and waved his hand at her outfit as they walked. Her black corset top was covered by a green military jacket. Her pleated, plaid skirt stopped the appropriate two inches above her knee in the front (but it was her curvy backside that made it hike a little higher than her old school's "dress code" in the back). Her black combat boots were laced with mismatched sparkly purple and silver shoe laces. Her hair was now dyed hot pink and tied back in careful cornrows and twists. Around her neck she sported a rainbow colored, handmade gum chain necklace.

"Rebellion. I threw out all my polo shirts the day high school ended and my current goal is to wear all the clothes that got me in trouble at high school," she said. "I think next week I'll wear my pajamas just to prove I can."

Eric laughed, "I tried to get rid of all my official polo shirts too but my mom wouldn't let me. She said we paid too much money for them and they are good shirts still."

"Well, if I catch you wearing one to college, I will pretend I don't know you the rest of the day," Bella answered.

They both sat in the back row of the windowless trailer classroom.

"You ready for this?" she asked Eric.

"For what?"

"Our first lecture as college students!" she said.

"I took a summer class," he said with a shrug.

"Killjoy."

._.._.

* * *

Two classes later, Bella found her way to the college cafeteria armed with her backpack and a bagel. She had a two hour break before her next class and felt more than ready for it. The warm August sunshine streamed through the large, open windows that looked out over rolling hills, browned from the summer sun. Empty tables were intermixed with occupied ones, some with isolated students tapping away on laptops or with their heads buried in a textbook. Others sat in pairs and small groups telling stories or comparing schedules and lunches.

"Bella! Bella!" came a voice from the corner. Jessica Stanley, Lauren Mallory, and Mike Newton sat together sharing a bag of Doritos and waved her over to join them. Bella knew all of them from the youth group at church where they had undergone some of their best (and worst moments) of high school together. She couldn't help but grin as she walked over to them and sat down.

"Bella! I can't believe how many hot guys I've seen so far today! I have a good feeling about college already!" Jessica gushed.

"Jessica's intent on pursuing her M.R.S. degree while she's here," Lauren scoffed. "I keep telling her to wait till she gets to U.C.L.A. and meets some real men, but she's intent to waste her time on the J.C. crowd. All the guys here are either too young or they are on the ten year AA degree plan and live in their moms' basements while they repeatedly drop out of school to work at Target."

"Hey! Nothing's wrong with men who work at Target and live in their moms' basements!" chimed in a man's voice from behind Bella's head. She turned, knowing already who the voice belonged to.

"Jacob," she said slowly as he gave each of the girls an appropriate side hug before giving Mike a fist bump. All eyes at the table immediately fell on Bella. She blushed and turned to Jessica to talk about textbook shopping after class. Jacob's easy manner and small talk soon brought attention back to him and Bella could pretend she felt comfortable again. That is, until her table mates began to wander off. Jessica left first, followed by Lauren, and finally Mike. Bella's eyes lingered on Mike as he walked away, as if her desire to not be left alone would be enough to keep him from leaving her alone with Jacob.

"So, Bella, how's everything?" Jacob said as she turned back to face him.

"Fine," she said. "How's…uh…you know…sorry….I just…." Her words stumbled out of her mouth more clumsily than her failed attempts at walking in high heels. Her face blushed bright red again and dropped her eyes to her hands on the table separating them.

"I like the pink hair. It matches your blush," he said with a chuckle, maddeningly at ease. "Look, I don't want to make things awkward for you. We've always been good friends, even before we dated. If our breakup didn't change our friendship, I don't think my new girlfriend should either. Just be free, Bells," Jacob said and winked. He stood to leave and grabbed his well-worn backpack over one shoulder before walking out the door.

She sat at the table alone staring out the window for the next hour, her hands motionless on the table.

It took her three laps around the campus to find her biology class. By the time she finally found the correct door, she grimaced to see she was five minutes late. She tried to covertly open the door and sneak in but found herself in the front of the class directly across from the lecturing professor.

"As I was saying, students, I will not tolerate tardiness in this class. Now, let's turn to page three on your syllabus," the grey-haired professor said pointedly. He handed Bella a syllabus and waved his hand towards the only empty seat in the class.

Bella averted her eyes from all the ones fixed on her and made her way to the empty seat. She barely managed to make it to the seat before she caught her boot on the side of the desk, tripped, and dropped her books on the other occupant of the desk. His expression of shock soon turned into a glare.

"I'm so sorry!" she whispered, wishing the floor would eat her up.

Her desk mate carefully stacked her books and placed them on the seat beside him before turning to face the front of the class. She pretended to focus her attention on the syllabus, but in reality found herself caught up in replaying every way she would have chosen to redo her day, if given the opportunity, starting with more comfortable clothes and avoiding extended conversations with Jacob Black. Deep in her reverie she felt a gentle nudge on her arm from her neighbor. She looked up into deep black eyes that seemed to glow out of the rich ebony contours and angles of his face. He silently pointed his head towards the front of the class.

"Miss Swan, I am assuming you are Miss Swan as you missed roll call and have 'Swan' written on your backpack…I'm still waiting for the answer to my question," the professor said with marked irritation in his voice.

"Question, sir?" Bella responded, inwardly kicking herself for letting her thoughts wander instead of paying attention.

A muttered grumbled reply wafted from the professor before he turned to another student. "Mr. Jones, perhaps you are a willing participant in today's class?"

"Yes. The Student Learning Center," the student replied.

"Correct. Now, allow me to remind you that you do get points for participation in class so I suggest you not only come on time but come prepared to pay attention," the professor said before moving on to his next point.

Bella sat with her face burning, ready to go home as soon as possible and hide herself in her room. An hour later, the professor released the class. She fled to her car and breathed a sigh of relief as she found herself within the comforting familiarity and isolation of her car. She stared at her dashboard frog and her hula dancer and looked at herself in the mirror. She thought she could force herself to be confident and have it all together. She could only force it so long before her more natural shyness and social awkwardness emerged again. She inhaled the familiar scent of her old truck cab and slowly turned the key to encourage the engine to growl to life.

She drove home with punk rock music blaring as loud as possible from her open windows while she sang at the top of her lungs. She found she could smile again by the time she made her way home. She didn't feel quite prepared to face her family yet so snuck into her room from the back door connecting it to the driveway. She threw her backpack down on the floor and gave a little screech when she suddenly found herself enveloped in a strong hug.

"Hah! Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, love!" Angela said as she released Bella. Angela smelled distinctly of Marie Callendar's pies and still wore her hostess uniform from her lunch shift. "I came over after I got off work so I could hear all about your big day!"

"It was…that's it. It was," Bella said before collapsing onto a bean bag chair on the floor. "I saw Mike and Eric and Jessica and Lauren."

"Fun! I'm a bit jealous. If it wasn't for how far Forks College was from my house, I'd be there too. Unfortunately, the ghetto of Los Arboles forces me into the chaos of Sharpton College," Angela said with a sigh. "While I will miss that awful commute, I will also missing hanging out with all the cool kids after class."

"I wish you were there too. That'd be awesome! We could be accomplices in trouble-just like old times!"

"Hah! I'm innocent! It's you who are the trouble-maker."

"No-I'm just the only one to get caught! You just look innocent."

"Cause I am!" Angela said, her hazel eyes full of mock innocence. She lay lazily on her stomach on the green carpet floor and waved her feet in the air behind her.

"So, I was late to my biology class and tripped and spilled my books all over a guy in my class," Bella said.

"Sounds pretty normal," Angela said and laughed. "You got detention at high school how many times for being late?"

"That wasn't my fault! My carpool was never on time which meant I arrived late regardless of what I did!"

"Sure, rebel."

"Yeah, yeah," Bella said and fell quiet.

"What are you not telling me?" Angela asked with a pointed glare.

"I talked to Jacob."

"I see. Before or after the biology incident?"

"Does it matter?"

"I don't know, does it?"

"Fine. Before," Bella said with a deep exhale. She dropped her brown eyes from Angela's and focused on the zippers of her boots instead.

"How'd it go?"

"He thinks we can still be friends. I want to be friends. I miss him terribly, but it was a lot easier being friends with him before he told me he found somebody else. It's been six months since he decided our relationship 'wasn't going anywhere' and that 'it's not like he was going to marry me' and he has every right to move on with his life…it's just…," Bella said and bit her lip as she paused.

"It's just hard to see him move on with his life because you haven't," Angela finished.

"Ugh. Yeah. The worst part is his new girlfriend is amazing. She's quirky and fun and sweet and rather plain and someone I'd love to be friends with. Now I can't be friends with her either," Bella said with a pout as she buried her face in the purple bean bag chair.

"Rather plain?" Angela asked with an eyebrow raised. She began tugging at threads in the green carpet beneath her on the floor as she looked at Bella.

"Yeah. I was hoping he'd find some drop dead gorgeous girl to replace me with so at least I could accuse him of being shallow. But he didn't. Instead he gets this super awesome girl who is just really great. I have to admit that he's not really shallow or being lame. He just didn't want me anymore and that's just hard for me to take. Then I find I keep thinking that maybe they'll break up really fast and I can accuse him of being fickle. But I honestly don't necessarily think that's going to happen either. I mean, they could end up getting married someday and I have to just deal with the fact that I really can't be friends with my ex and we aren't getting back together and he doesn't want me anymore," Bella replied.

"Do you want to be back with him?" Angela asked.

"No…yes…maybe. Ok, I don't know! I don't know what I want anymore! I mean, we were together most of high school. He was the first…the only…guy who has ever truly been interested in me and I liked being liked. But, more than that, besides you, he was my best friend. And I love his mom. That's the worst part. Now I can't see his mom whenever I like and I haven't quite forgiven him for that," Bella said before she burst into giggles. Angela chucked a pillow at her head.

"His mom? Really? These are the words of a heartbroken woman. You miss his mom? You are so over him," Angela replied.

"Well, it doesn't matter if I am over him or not, I don't have him and I don't have a choice in the matter so I need to move on. Besides, I don't need him. I've got you and my family and college group at church has some rather beautiful men in it. I intend to enjoy my freedom and enjoy this season and forget all about Jacob Black," Bella said decidedly, standing up to smooth out her outfit.

"You wore that to school? My mom wouldn't have let me out of the house like that," Angela said.

"Exactly why I have a back door so I can leave the house without being seen!" Bella responded with a grin. "That and so you can sneak into my room and give me a heart attack when I come home from school and find you here."

"Come on, let's change and go rollerblading before I have to go home."

"You got it!" Bella said.

._.._.

* * *

"I see you've accomplished your second wardrobe goal of the week," Eric said as he met Bella at her car Wednesday morning. She purposefully only scheduled Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes so she wouldn't have to drive to school as often. Besides, sleeping in on two weekdays sounded divine.

"Yes! Today is pajama day!" she said with a giggle as she smoothed out her plaid, flannel pajama pants and My Little Pony t-shirt.

"Are you going to meet up with us for dinner after class tonight?" he asked.

"Maybe. I have a night class so it depends on how long you all stay. I'll call you after I get out."

"Call me? Did you finally get a cell phone?"

"Yeah. I took all my summer earnings and finally got a phone. Jessica already gave me everyone's numbers," Bella said as she held up her black and white Nokia phone.

"Cool."

Morning classes finished. Bella determined that Jacob Black would not keep her from hanging out with her friends so she squared her shoulders and marched into the cafeteria. There, she found the same table occupied by the same little group, plus Tyler and Ben.

"So, we've been debating whether it's humanly possible to drink a gallon of milk in one sitting," Mike said to her as she sat down beside him. "Jacob says it's not possible and Tyler says it is if its skim milk and if the guy is big enough. What do you think?"

"Ummm, I'm not sure. I don't intend to put it to the test," Bella said and buried her face in her sandwich to avoid getting embroiled any further in the confrontation.

"I'll bet Emmett would be able to do it," Tyler said and pointed with his thumb behind his head at a table nearby.

"Who?" Jacob asked.

"Emmett, that big guy there. I went to high school with him and I've seen him eat. I'm pretty sure if anyone could finish off a gallon of milk, it would be him."

All eyes turned toward the table referenced where three men sat. Bella recognized one as her unfortunate, book-smashed desk mate from biology. Another, apparently Emmett, towered over the other two in height and breadth. He was also dressed the most casually in a Patriots t-shirt and sweats. Her classmate and the other man sat up straight in meticulously ironed collared shirts, khakis, and dress shoes. They were not short by any means, but they were thin, very thin, compared to Emmett's brawn and bulk. Emmett's hair hung to his ears in tight dreads while the other two kept their hair shorn close to their heads.

"Interesting trio," Jessica said. "Emmett looks like he could drink a gallon of milk and still have space for the cow. The other two look like they could use some more milk in their lives. What's their story?"

"There are a lot of stories about their family," Tyler continued. "Emmett started with my older brother the beginning of senior year. He transferred from somewhere back east. The other two are his brothers or cousins or something. I've never met them but rumor has it they come from Africa. Someone said they were like child soldiers somewhere in the bush and used to eat lions for breakfast. Someone else said they only learned to wear clothes when they got here and they used to run around in loin clothes hunting antelope all day before their parents died of AIDS and they were adopted by the Reverend's family. Someone else said the Reverend has a harem of like twelve wives back in Africa and these are all some of his kids that he pretends are his nephews."

"The Reverend? Who is that?" asked Jessica.

"They call him Reverend Cullen. He's an assistant reverend at an Episcopal church near my high school. He came a couple of years ago when his wife, she's a medical doctor or something, came to move out here for a job at one of the big hospitals in the Valley. My mom sends my little brother to science camp with Reverend Cullen sometimes in the summers," Tyler said.

"Forks College seems a little random. What brings them here?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know. I think Emmett got some kind of scholarship or something but I don't know the details. I know he played football at my high school and was a pretty cool guy. I've never seen the other two before."

"So, back to the topic at hand," Jacob interjected, calling all eyes away from the trio, "Milk challenge? Tonight at the Man Cave. Who's in?"

.-.-.

* * *

Bella made her way to biology and this time arrived early, intent on paying attention in class. She arrived before her professor and followed him in after he opened the door.

"Miss Swan."

"Dr. Banner."

Bella sat at her desk and doodled on her notebook paper while the class slowly filled with people. Soon, she heard the chair next to her scrape against the floor as freshly shined dress shoes slipped beneath the desk and she raised her eyes to meet those of her desk mate where he towered over her.

"Hi," she said with what she hoped was a welcoming and apologetic smile.

Her desk mate stared at her in silence and nodded coolly before turning towards the front of the class again. He refused to acknowledge her for the remainder of the class.

._.._.

* * *

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!" could be heard as soon as Bella parked her car in the dirt lot of the Man Cave (the fond nickname given to the house shared by group of college boys who also happened to work in the youth group of their church). The dark of the mountains contrasted with the few stars she could see above her. The little house was perpetually filled with college-aged students and perpetually messy as from its busy male inhabitants who were often running between school and internships and jobs.

"He's gonna hurl! He's not gonna make it!" Ben shouted as Bella walked into the full living room. There, Tyler and Chris held upturned gallons of skim milk over their open mouths for an audience shouting cheers around them. Tyler's was nearly halfway empty and Chris' was nearly two thirds empty. Chris jumped up and ran into the bathroom where the shouts of the ten or so people in the room barely covered the sound of his vomit.

"If you win, you get bragging rights for a month! Come on, man!" Mike shouted at Tyler.

"Nah! I know when I've been beat. I don't want to see that milk again," Tyler said as he placed the gallon of milk onto the table with a groan.

"Who's ready for Halo?" Mike said. "Maybe we'll get a winner out of that!"

"Hey, I don't see you drinking any milk," Tyler said.

"Here's my contribution," Mike said, and poured himself a single glass of milk, chugged it, and put the rest of the milk into the fridge. "I choose my battles and bragging rights based on my skill level and not on tasks that are humanly impossible. Now, Halo?"

"You're on!" Ben and Eric said as they distributed themselves onto the worn couch.

"Bells, you missed pie!" Jacob shouted at her from across the room where he sat on a couch with his hands firmly entwined in Nessie's.

"Yeah, I had to go to class. Was Angela there?" Bella answered, as she tried not to dwell on their intertwined fingers.

"But of course! We would have gotten you some pie…but Chris came and…well…."

"Enough said."

"Though I suppose that was a waste seeing he just hurled everything. We should have saved it for you."

"I had cardboard pizza before my night class started. I had no need for pie. Besides, I'll make Angela bring me back pie after her next shift," Bella said and shrugged her shoulders.

"You know, Eric and I are going to apply to work there too," Mike said over his shoulder before blasting something to its death on the screen. "We could both use a job and Ang said they are hiring."

"That's great! We'll have more excuses for going for pie!" Bella replied.

"Are you still working at the mattress store?"

"Yeah, only Friday afternoons and Saturdays. It works well with my schedule and if it's slow, I can study."

"Do you ever test the mattresses? If I was surrounded by beds all days, I would nap frequently," Mike said.

"I jump on them occasionally but usually sleeping on the job is frowned upon by most employers," Bella said as she picked up one of her textbooks and skimmed her assigned reading for the week. Lauren and Jessica sat at the kitchen table giggling as they looked through a fashion magazine.

"Bella, do you want to come shopping with us tomorrow?" Jessica asked.

"Nah. That's ok. I need to catch up on my studies," Bella responded.

"Come on! It's the first week! How much homework can you possibly have?" Jessica pleaded.

"Yeah, Bella's the one who would rather do nonexistent homework than shop. She hates shopping. Don't make her come up with anymore lame excuses," Lauren said.

Bella shrugged and bit the top of her pen and pretended to be very interested in her textbook again. She could have agreed to join them. But an entire day discussing T.V. shows she didn't watch, clothes she wasn't interested in buying, and the attractiveness of actors she had no knowledge of didn't sound like her ideal way to spend the day. Her mountains were calling to her again and she couldn't think of a way she'd rather spend her day.

* * *

_Author's Note: This is quite a break from the fantasy genre of my past two stories.__ I want to explore more the interstice between cultures and worlds in the "real world" as opposed to one of mythological creatures. However, I want to go into more the concept of "otherness" that is touched on a bit in Twilight. I am using pretend place names but am focused in Southern California instead of rural Washington. _


	2. Chapter 2: Introductions

**Chapter 2: Introductions**

It was still dark out as Angela and Bella made it to the lookout point on the trail head in the Santa Monica Mountains. A tiny sliver of pink and gold near the eastern mountain range hinted at the quickly approaching dawn over the twinkling city below.

"I am out of shape for mountains," Angela complained with a huff. She flopped onto a sandstone outcropping of rock overlooking the view. The horizon shifted to gray and blue as the sun stretched and strained and reached for the new morning.

"If you would wake up with me on Wednesdays, you would be in better shape!" Bella said as she pulled out a blanket, Bible, book, and journal.

"Ugh! 5am every Wednesday is way too early for me. Besides, I live farther than you. I'd have to wake up way earlier than I ever want to."

"Not if you stayed the night at my house!"

"And we'd stay up way too late to be able to wake up at dawn."

"Hmmm, you win," Bella said.

"Always!" Angela said. She fixed her black hair into a long ponytail and smoothed her blanket on the hard sandstone rock beneath her. The two girls sank into companionable silence as they read together. They were roused from their peaceful reverie by the pages of their books flipping in the strong wind.

"I think the Santa Ana's are going to be bad today. The wind is already starting up. It's really going to mess with my outfit today," Bella complained as they started hiking back down the mountain. "I didn't plan for wind. I have my pink poodle skirt and I don't want a Marilyn Monroe moment. I don't have time to go home to change but these pants are covered in dirt now."

"You should text Ben and have him bring some of his sister's sweats," Angela said with a laugh.

"That's a good idea. By the way, how are things going with you and Ben?" Bella asked.

"Great! He's _so _wonderful, but I've been telling you that for the past year, four months, and three days now. I wish I could see him more, but between our work schedules and school schedules, it's a little complicated. You will probably see him more than me since you are both at Forks. I think we are going to try to head to the beach on Saturday and spend the day hanging out."

"That sounds amazing! Unless it stays windy like this."

"Yeah."

"Hey so you and Ben are going to have to win the high school sweetheart award now. I'm glad he's so good to you though cause if he wasn't, I'd have to kick his butt," Bella said.

Angela laughed, mainly at the thought of her petite friend having a chance against her muscular former wrestler of a boyfriend. She turned serious again. "Who would have thought that Ben and I would make it longer than you and Jacob? I mean, you two are the only reason we met and Ben asked me out at your house. We always thought you and Jacob were like meant to be or something. Any college boys on the horizon?"

"Well, I mean there's our usual crowd. Tyler is fun and very good looking, but he doesn't seem all that interested. Chris and Mike have possibilities."

"I thought you weren't interested in Mike."

"I wasn't, but that's because I was still getting over Jacob. I mean, Mike is hardly what you'd call handsome and he's such a nerd, but he's been a good friend to me and I appreciate him."

"Hardly handsome, a nerd, and a friend? Yep. You are head over heels in love with him. Don't look any further. Once he hears all these praises, he'll propose immediately."

"Hey! I'm not agreeing to marry him yet, but neither am I crossing him off the list completely. I'm still figuring things out and open to any possibility."

"Right. Well, I get to approve your men first and if any don't treat you well, I'll be the first one to beat them up."

"They'll be much more intimidated by you than me. Your softball bat and pitching arm could do way more damage than my ballet toes and hula hips."

"Hey! I've seen your hips during your dance recitals, those could easily take out a full grown man with one swish of your grass skirt."

"Ha ha. Go to school, Ang. I need to go call your boyfriend about finding some pants."

Angela burst into giggles. "I'm glad I know the context of that," she said in between giggles.

Bella playfully slapped her and got into her faded orange truck to drive the rest of the way to school.

.-..-.

* * *

Unfortunately, Ben's schedule and her schedule did not cross paths until lunchtime. The hill top campus allowed a breathtaking view of the velvet hills around the semi-isolated campus, but also served as a perfect wind tunnel to the fierce, hot winds that whipped between the outdoor buildings and walkways. Bella carefully held down her loose flowing fifties style skirt till lunch time. When she entered the cafeteria, she hardly walked three steps into the open room before, "Bella, I've got your pants," boomed much too loudly across the room.

Mike ran up to her, threw a plastic bag at her and then disappeared into the food line. Bella shook her head, flushed bright red, and laughed. She flushed even deeper and dropped her eyes to her sparkly pink shoes when she caught the loathsome glare of her biology desk mate pointing in her direction as if she had set his socks on fire or something. She didn't want to ask too she had done to offend her desk mate (besides dropping books on his head and gaining the ire of their professor).

Instead, she simply slipped into the bathroom and happily changed into the comfortable sweats. Ben's sister had a couple inches over her 5 foot 3 inch frame so she had to roll up the ankles, but they would work. She would have to be careful not to trip over them. She joined her friends in the corner table and the time passed quickly.

"Let me walk with you to class," Mike said as she got up to leave. "My class got cancelled this afternoon and I have to kill some time before my last class."

"Ok," Bella said. "This way."

"Ben had to leave early to go to the dentist so he gave me your pants during Statistics, though I think I preferred your skirt. It reminds that it's been far too long since we've been dancing."

"That _was_ fun. Do you remember how shy Angela and Ben were about learning the steps? Ben acted like he was afraid to touch her hands."

Mike laughed. "Yeah. I also remember how there were so many more girls than guys there and I was quite the ladies' man that night. It was awesome! Even Eric had his pick of partners, despite having two left feet and being deathly afraid of cooties."

Bella grinned and remembered the bright red, flustered face of their shy friend as he stammered his way through small talk and dance steps during their group foray into swing dancing.

"I'm pretty sure he almost passed out when he had to hold Lauren's hand," she said. She was pretty sure that Eric had secretly adored Lauren since probably 6th grade but never seemed to grow his courage to manage anything more than breathing the same air as her during group activities.

"Poor guy. I've been trying to give him lessons on how to impress the ladies, but he refuses to take me up on it."

"Probably because you are single," Bella responded.

"Oooooh! Burn! You wound me!" Mike said, his small, light green eyes dancing with mirth and mock injury.

"Well, while you go lick your wounded pride, I've gotta go. This is my class. I'll see you later, Mike."

"I'm serious, Bella. Let's go to the club on Friday."

"Sounds great!" Bella responded and gave Mike a hug. She turned and found her desk mate standing beside the door to the class, once again watching her with a death glare.

"What?" she asked as she met his dark eyes.

"Nothing," he whispered and went inside the classroom. She followed him and set her books down with more force than she intended, causing her history textbook to slam onto the floor.

"Seriously, why are you glaring at me like I just killed somebody's kitten?"

He ignored her and stared straight ahead. Dr. Banner swept up to the front of the class with all the majesty of a general coming before his army. He began to furiously scrawl words onto the whiteboard. The sound of flipping pages and writing pens soon replaced the chatter of students.

"Today, you will need to work in partners to complete our lesson," Dr. Banner announced after he finished writing. "With your partner, figure out the answer to all of these questions. I will be bringing around microscopes and slides to assist you."

Bella turned to her partner, who, once again, was immaculately dressed in a long-sleeved blue collared shirt, tie, and grey slacks. He sat straight up and stared ahead at the whiteboard. She had yet to hear him say more than one word to anyone. She sighed and nervously turned through the pages of her textbook.

"I can start if you want," Bella said slowly, not sure if he would understand her or if he even spoke English.

"No, I will begin," he answered quickly and began writing the answer on the worksheet. His deep voice carried a lilting accent. Bella jumped slightly in surprise to hear him speak. He quickly wrote the answer to the first question in a clear, neat script without stopping to look up the answer in the textbook. She glanced over it and was surprised to see it was correct.

"Now, it is your turn," he said.

"K," she replied. She wrote her own answer in her much less elegant, much less legible scrawl and turned back to him. They completed the assignment quickly and then sat motionless at their shared desk in an awkward silence.

"You know, I still don't know your name," Bella said.

"Edward," he answered briefly.

"Oh. Ok."

"I'm Bella," she said and bit her lip.

"Yes. I know," he said and pointed to her notebook where her name was clearly written in gold pen across the front.

"Oh."

"You have a very strange surname. Swan. That is like a goose, yes?"

"Kind of."

"Was there a swan nearby your home on the day you were born?"

"No? Why?"

"I just thought…never mind. So why are you named after a bird?"

"Well, I didn't really have a choice in the matter. I was just born with it cause, you know, it's my dad's name," she answered.

"So you were named in honor of your father then. Can you not change it?" he asked.

"Well, I guess. I mean, it will change if I get married someday."

"I think if I were named after a kind of edible waterfowl, I would choose to change my name."

"Well, it's not my favorite. I get made fun of for it a lot," Bella answered, thoughtfully. "My first name means 'beautiful' and my last name refers to what is supposed to be a graceful and beautiful bird. Ever since I was a kid, I've been made fun of because I have never lived up to my name. I should probably be named after a goose instead."

"Edward means 'rich guard'," he said and flashed her a brilliant smile that lit up his entire face with an earnest glow. "I was born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. My uncle was the first honored visitor in our home and so he chose my name to call me Edward after my grandfather, but I've also struggled to live up to the meaning of my name."

"Uganda? Is that where you are from?" Bella asked, curious.

"Yes. I was born in the capital city of Kampala though my family comes a region somehow far from there," he answered.

"Wait, I thought Uganda is in South America?" Bella said.

Edward snorted. "You may be thinking of Uruguay. Uganda is located in East Africa and is, as Sir Winston Churchill put it on his visit to Uganda, 'the Pearl of Africa.'"

"Sir Winston who?" Bella asked.

Edward's eyes momentarily widened and he grumbled a response in another language that Bella could not interpret. In another moment, he regained his composure and refitted his face with a smile.

Dr. Banner ceased his determined marching through the class aisles beside their table. He gave a cursory glance over their assignment and a slight frown.

"Bella, Edward, finished so soon?" he asked in his slight British accent.

"Yes, Dr. Banner," Edward replied. "We have completed the assignment."

"I see. That was surprisingly quick. Can you please explain why you have managed to already finish this assignment while the rest of the class is still only halfway through?"

Bella flushed and stared at the desk for a moment while Edward stammered a hesitant reply.

"I do not know, Dr. Banner. We simply completed the assignment as requested."

"Have you both taken this class before?" he asked.

"Ummm, I took A.P. biology in high school," Bella answered.

"I took advanced science courses during my A Level studies," Edward replied.

Dr. Banner sighed. "Turn to page 305 and completed questions 1-10 there," he said. "I may have to assign you both additional coursework if you continue to find this too simple."

"Yes, Dr. Banner," they both replied. Dr. Banner marched on to the next desk to begin chiding another unfortunate pair of students for their efforts and left Edward and Bella in peace.

"America is very different from Uganda and I still have too much to learn. I only arrived in the U.S. about two months ago," Edward said with a small smile.

"So recently! Your English is very good!" Bella said.

Edward's eyes grew wide and he gave her a derisive glare. "I would hope so seeing it is probable I have spoken English longer than you have been alive."

"Wow! So, you learned English in Uganda?"

"Of course."

Bella shrugged, feeling embarrassed but not quite sure why.

"So, why did you move here?" Bella asked. She immediately regretted it. Edward turned to face the front the front of the class again and effectively ended their conversation for the class period. She looked at his profile as he stubbornly faced forward, sighed, and turned back to doodle on her notebook.

.-..-.

* * *

The following Monday, Bella sat on a picnic table overlooking the brown hillsides. She attempted to concentrate on her world history reading during her interim between classes, but she found the sun very warm and her eyes suddenly very heavy. She glanced up from her reading to watch students pass by with their arms full of books and their steps hurried to get to their destinations.

She recognized the neat collared shirt and tall, elegant framework of her biology partner walking past with his two companions. Edward caught sight of her and nodded in greeting. The much larger, much more casually dressed of the three jabbed him in the ribs and stopped him from continuing.

"Yo! Man! You gonna introduce me?" he boomed. Edward glared at him before backtracking to stand in front of Bella with his hand outstretched to formally shake her hand.

"Bella, please meet my cousin, Emmett, and our friend, Jasper. Bella shares a biology class with me," he said.

"Good afternoon, Bella," Jasper said, also shaking her hand. Bella paused for a moment in awe as she stared at his strikingly beautiful golden eyes glowing like embers in the sunlight. The next thing she noticed were the scars marring his caramel colored skin across his left cheek and down his neck and forearm, disappearing underneath his light green polo shirt.

"I am honored to make your acquaintance," Emmett said with a slight bow of mock formality, in blatant jesting of Edward. His sweats and Matadors t-shirt were in stark contrast to the dressier clothes of his companions. Now knowing they were cousins, Bella could pick out slight similarities between the two. They both shared the same deep fudge complexion and dark slanted eyes that seemed to soak in everything around them with the same keen intelligence. That, however, was where the similarities ended.

"It's good to meet you," she said and blushed.

"You look ready to fall asleep right there on your book," Emmett said with a wide, familiar grin. His presence seemed to fill the entire space around the four of them with a comfortable glow. "What's got you thinking so hard?"

"World history. I'm trying to finish my reading on the Ottoman Empire but the sun is making me very sleepy. I'm afraid I might end up learning the rest of my lesson through osmosis," she said.

"You should walk with us to the cafeteria and get your blood flowing again."

"Ok," Bella said. She gathered her books and stood to walk with them. "I could use the change of scenery."

"Excellent! We can use your assistance! We are trying to give Edward a lesson on American food, so he doesn't keep looking like a starving African child," Emmett said and slapped Edward on the back, once again receiving a disgruntled glare.

"Emmett and Rosalie are starting back at school and will no longer be cooking for him or as free to drive him around," Jasper explained. "Edward will have longer days at school while he waits for Rosalie to finish school to pick him up. He needs to learn to eat from the cafeteria. It's proving a bit of a challenge."

"Rosalie is…?" Bella asked.

"My queen," Emmett said, very seriously. "She is an instructional aide at a school in the valley for a class of students with disabilities. We share a car and until freshie here gets his license, he's stuck getting his rides from Rosalie."

"Oh. Wait, school? Emmett, don't you go to school here?" Bella asked.

Emmett exploded into a great booming laugh that turned the heads of the students walking in front of them.

"No! I've got a full ride at CSUN on a football scholarship. I'm a sophomore there. I've been helping get these two settled in here and spending as much time with my Rosie as I can before my semester starts. Mama gave me very specific instructions to help make these two self-sustainable, which is no easy task, I assure you," Emmett said.

Edward grumbled something besides them which Bella assumed must be in another language. Emmett responded with a laugh.

"Jasper, Edward says I should stop embarrassing him and making him sound like a child. Do you feel patronized as well? I would hate to embarrass you, as you are our elder," Emmett said with a wink at Bella.

"Emmett!" Edward said in exasperation before promptly turning and walking the other direction.

"_Bwana,_ too far," Jasper said quietly. "Allow him some dignity."

Emmett shrugged and appeared nonplussed. "I just thought it would be polite to translate what he said so you and Bella could understand."

"Translate for Jasper? Doesn't he understand?" Bella asked.

"No," Jasper said. "The only language the three of us share is English."

"Oh," Bella said, not fully understanding. She fell quiet for a moment. "Will Edward be ok?"

"He'll be fine. He's moodier than a hungry lion at times and he's had a bad America day today," Emmett said and shrugged. "He was already grumpy because we told him to eat a sandwich and he doesn't think sandwiches are real food."

"I believe his exact words were that sandwiches 'torture him psychologically,'" Jasper interjected. "He'll get over it when he gets hungry enough and realizes he doesn't have that many other options. He is still very new here and he will adjust with time."

"Speaking of time, I've gotta meet Rosie for lunch_. Hasta luego_, _mukwanos_!" Emmett said with a salute before hopping over a picnic table in one bound and jogging towards the parking lot.

Bella laughed as she watched him leave.

"He is…ummm…interesting," she said as she turned to Jasper.

"That's one word choice, I suppose," Jasper said, his golden eyes crinkled into an amused smile. "He fully exasperates his mother and father and cousin with his antics. He's spent most of his life in the U.S. and is more American than he is Ugandan, but he knows enough of the culture to be able to fully irritate his family when he feels inspired," Jasper said with a grin. "Now, Miss Bella, we have all disturbed your peace this afternoon. You were reading about the Ottoman Empire. That is a fascinating era in world history. Istanbul is truly a remarkably rich city. It is one of the most interesting places I have ever been. Tell me, are you a student of history?"

"I have no major at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life. This is only my first semester of college and so I'm just doing my gen ed classes. What about you?"

"I find myself tired of my long nights as a security guard and wish to enter into the illustrious career of nursing. I am entering into my first semester of college to begin the Associates Degree in Nursing, so I can eventually become an RN," Jasper replied.

"You sound so sure of yourself," Bella said. "You have a plan and you know what you want."

Jasper laughed. "Hardly! I would much prefer to study history, as that is my true passion, however history is not as economically feasible a career option nor as short a degree process as nursing. And I am not a young man anymore. I've spent too many years floundering and I need to provide for my family."

"You have a family?" Bella asked with surprise.

"Well, only my wife at the moment, but we are hoping to change that," he said with a grin, "but I also help support my family back at home in Kenya. I have my parents and brothers, sisters, and cousins to look after."

He paused and stared off into the hills for a moment.

"That's very interesting," Bella said.

"There, you are using that same word as you used for Emmett! Should I feel offended by the comparison?"

"No! I mean I've enjoyed getting to meet you today, really!" Bella said and raised her hands to show her sincerity. "But, it's time I go to my class. It was very nice to meet you, Jasper. I hope to see you again around campus!"

"Even me, I have enjoyed our conversation," Jasper said with a smile.

.-..-.

* * *

Bella made her way to biology where she found Edward already seated at their table, eyes fixed forward, collar perfectly unruffled, and pen ready in hand.

"Hey! You OK?" she asked as she slid into her seat.

He gave a silent nod of the head without turning in her direction.

"I enjoyed meeting your friends," Bella said with a smile, hoping to coax him into conversation but without avail. He simply nodded again. Bella sighed, took out her books, and also fell into an awkward silence. Edward refused to acknowledge her the remainder of the class period.


	3. Chapter 3: Common Sense

**Chapter 3: Common Sense**

A month and a half into the semester, Bella felt victorious in her capacity to find her way around her campus, balance her class load, and navigate some of the complications of college life. She also felt less inclined to rebel against her high school wardrobe and more inclined to show up in a t-shirt and jeans. She looked up from her biology textbook on the sunny picnic table when she heard a voice shouting nearby.

"_Omuzungu, ogambaki?"_ Emmett was standing two feet away with a grin on his face wide enough to envelope his whole face in shining white teeth. If his smile wasn't so large, she might first have noticed the fact that he was wearing tiny, hot pink shorts that stopped half a foot above his knees along with a muscle-tight shirt that read "chicks dig this."

"_Gwe, omuzungu, ogambaki_?" He repeated.

"Ummm, _hakuna matata_?" Bella asked, confusion plain on her face, much to Emmett's amusement.

"Good enough for me," he said and sat next to her on the bench.

"What's with the outfit?" she asked.

"Alice."

"Jasper's Alice? Is that supposed to explain things?"

"Ha! I think it's more accurate to say 'Alice's Jasper,' but yes, that's the one. I lost a bet with her and so she got to dress me today. I think I look good though. Pink flatters my complexion, don't you think?" he said and flexed his dark, massive biceps before throwing his head back in a circle, making his short dreads swirl around his face in waves.

"Yep. You are totally rockin' the pink. What was the bet?"

"I told her I could get Edward to eat a sandwich."

"Still psychological torment?"

"Yeah. I tried to pay him $5 to eat one and that didn't work. Then I told him I'd iron his clothes for him for a week. But he doubts my mad ironing skills. I even tried to get my little brother to eat one with me so we could peer pressure him, but he is the stubbornnest man alive and refuses enlightenment. Hence, my flagrant show of skin today. It's ok. I don't actually go to school here and I'm just here cause I have a break today."

"So you gonna explain what you called me in whatever language you were speaking? Or should I just assume you were saying I look like a toad or smell like a dirty sock or something?"

Emmett's booming laugh filled the air again. "Sista, I like you. No, I just said 'what's up?' in Luganda."

"What am I supposed to say back?"

"_Tewali."_

"Ok. Taweli."

Emmett laughed again and it was such a warm, welcoming laugh, that Bella could hardly mind that he was laughing at her expense.

"So is that your, what do you call it, first language or something?" she asked.

"Nah. It's what the main group of people in Kampala speak. It's not our family language at all and I left so young that I barely remember much of it anymore. However, you inspired me."

"I inspired you to speak a language you don't really speak," she responded dryly.

"Yep," he said.

Before she could come up with a response, Emmett had bounded across the three picnic tables and was running full speed through the grassy courtyard nearby, singing "Staying Alive" at the top of his lungs and pretending to throw a football to invisible opponents.

Bella shook her head and watched his deep brown and hot pink form weave to and fro until he vanished into the parking lot.

.-.-.

* * *

An hour later, Bella arrived in biology and nearly tripped over the door frame on her way . As she caught her balance and she suddenly forgot her embarrassment when she caught sight of her desk mate. Edward sat at their shared table in a pair of light, well-worn jeans and a plain navy blue long sleeved t-shirt and black Converse shoes.

"Hey! What happened to you?" she said as she sat down and motioned towards his clothes.

"Alice," he grumbled as he stared at his notebook. By his tone, she assumed that if his dark cheeks had the capacity to flush, he would be burning.

"It sounds like Alice is creating havoc with everybody's wardrobes today. Did you lose a bet too?"

"Ah! You spoke with Emmett then? No, I did not lose a bet and no, I still have not eaten a sandwich. Alice came to the house last night and refused me from looking like an _mzee_..er…an old man. When I woke up this morning, I found all my clothes missing and these were set out on my floor. When I catch her, I will cane her soundly. But first I must catch her and she is very slippery. Until then, I am afraid I look very shabby in these clothes," he said, flaring his nostrils as he spoke.

"You look rather normal, actually. Like, a lot younger. How old are you?" Bella asked.

"About 18."

"About?"

"It's a long story."

"Ok. Eighteen. See, I thought you were older."

"I probably am."

"Ummm, let me guess, part of that long story?"

"Yes."

"Got it. But don't you feel more comfortable now in these clothes?" Bella asked.

"No. Throughout all primary school and secondary school, I would get beaten if I arrived at school unkempt or without my school uniform. It feels wrong to come to a tertiary institution without the proper apparel. It is not respectful to appear so casual," Edward replied.

"Oh. You had uniforms all through school? Didn't you want to rebel and wear whatever?"

"No. Everybody wore uniforms and those who did not were not allowed to attend classes. Students all wore uniforms so we could not differentiate between the rich and the poor. It made us all appear the same."

"Huh. I had to wear a uniform the last three years of high school and hated it. I can see the logic behind what you are saying though." Bella paused and thought for another moment before continuing. "So, has Alice won you over to the dark side?"

"The dark side?"

"You know-like Star Wars?"

"What is Star Wars?"

"You don't know Star Wars? The movie? It's like a classic that everybody has seen," she said, surprise evident in her voice.

"I suppose I am not everybody," Edward responded sourly.

"I'm sorry. That came out wrong," Bella said. She attempted to backtrack, but before she could say anything else, Dr. Banner called the class to order.

.-.-.

* * *

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

The pounding on her door came a second time. Bella growled, rolled over, and threw her pillow across the room.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

"Bella! Let us in!"

"Mike? What are you doing here? It's…uh…what time is it?" Bella said groggily.

"7:30am and if you open the door I'll tell you why we are here," he responded, voice slightly muffled by the thick back door.

Bella managed to hurl herself out of bed and shuffled groggily to the door. She opened the lock and outside her backdoor she found Ben, Mike, and Chris standing outside.

"Why are you pounding on my door this early in the morning?" she said as she ushered them into her bedroom. "And it had better be good or I will feed you to our chickens."

"Aren't you usually up at the crack of dawn, I mean, you saw the sunrise hiking the other day," Ben said.

"Yeah, that's Wednesdays. This is Monday, which is the morning after Sunday and, if I'm remembering correctly, we were all at the Man Cave until, well, I left at midnight and you all were still there," she said and crossed her hands over her chest.

"Yeah, well, Mike usually has an early class and he's my ride," Chris said as he flopped down on the bean bag chair and looked much too comfortable for a quick visit. "We were on our way to school when we saw the whole freeway was crawling with firetrucks and flashing lights. We turned on the news and found out that school has been cancelled for the day. Apparently the fire has been spread by the winds and its right near the school. So, no class!"

"You could have just called and told me," Bella answered with a yawn. "My first class isn't till 9am."

"I didn't want to go all the way home just to turn around and come back for small groups at church tonight. Besides, we wanted to see," Mike said.

"See what?" Bella asked.

"The fires!" Mike said.

"If you hadn't noticed, all the mountains and hills surrounding your neighborhood are also currently on fire, which means if we can gain entry to your second story balcony, we can watch the end of the world from there," Chris responded.

"It's all on fire? Wow! That's nuts! It wasn't anywhere near us yesterday!"

"Did you miss the part where I mentioned there's been a lot of wind?" Mike responded.

"Alright, alright. Well, let's go upstairs and see what we can see," Bella said as she pulled on some shoes over her pajama pants. "This still doesn't explain why you are here, Ben."

"Ah, well, I figured Angela would find her way here at some point and I miss her," he said with a grin.

"You had her all day Saturday. I'm not sharing. Go away."

"Well, I'm already here."

"Fine. Let's go upstairs."

"Going."

Bella warned her parents of the presence of guests and ushered them all onto the deck overlooking the nearby mountains. Sure enough, grey, hazy smoke billowed from mountain crevices, interspersed with orange tongues of fire swallowing up all the dry brush and old oak trees they could find. The previous spring's rain ushered in an abundance of growth in the wild foliage which the successive months of rainless summer heat had turned into perfect kindling.

"Dude!" Chris shouted. "I hope the church and the Man Cave don't burn up today."

"I wouldn't mind if school stayed closed a few more days," Mike added as he leaned over the balcony.

"You would if the school burned down," Bella said.

"That would be awesome! I bet they'd just give us credit for all our classes as some kind of emergency situation," he responded.

"No, it would mean a dead semester and you'd have to transfer to Sharpton College, which would be even more crowded than it already is. So, you'd have to go to school at 6am just to take GE classes," she said.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "I have full faith in our fire fighters. Now, is there a way we can climb on the roof? I want a better view."

"Ummm, we'd need a ladder I think," Bella said and five minutes later the whole group lounged on the second story roof. The flames licked down the velvet hills in a thin line of orange and gold that left black tracks and billowing black smoke in its wake.

"Bella! Bella!" came a voice from the deck.

"Up here, mom!" she responded and peeked down from the roof.

"There you are! You kids are too funny. I just wanted to let you know that the Smith family might get evacuated today if the winds keep up as they are. I told them to bring the horses and the chickens to our barn if that happens. I have to go teach a class now. Will you be home this morning in case they need to come by?" Bella's mom said, craning her neck to see her daughter above her.

"Yeah. School is cancelled today. I'll be here," Bella said.

"Good. I'll see you later then," Renee said and disappeared to teach her yoga class.

.-.-.

* * *

"Dude! Let's go find the fire!" Chris told everyone over lunch. The morning hours were spent rotating between epic board games and fire watching. Jessica, Lauren, and Angela came by with pizza around lunch time and Bella still hadn't received any displaced farm animals. "I'll bet if we went over by the hiking trail, we'd find the flames," Chris continued, his mouth full of pizza.

"I'm down," Bella said. "We can grab a couple of bikes out of the garage so we can get past the road blocks."

"Sweet! I'm in!" Mike added.

The three of them soon found themselves peddling towards the fire, ash and smoke heavy in the air, dimming the sky and turning the sun a hazy shade of orange.

"Look! Over there! It's creeping towards the cemetery!" Chris said. The three pulled their bikes near a chain link fence and watched as the flame licked around the hillsides near the graves and ancient, gnarled oaks.

"That's crazy!" Mike said. "Bella, this reminds me of the time in 9th grade we watched the lightning storm from your deck and the power went out."

"What do you mean 'we'? If I remember correctly, Angela, Jessica, Eric and I watched the lightning storm. You were too busy making out with Lena to see any lightning," Bella said with a pointed glare.

"Hey! I did too watch the lightning! After making out with Lena," he responded.

"You mean after my parents caught you making out with Lena in my bedroom, in the dark, and gave you both a long lecture and then nearly grounded me?" Bella said.

"There's no need to be so particular on the details," Mike said.

Chris burst into laughter and pushed Mike nearly off his bike.

"Who was Lena?" he asked, laughing at the sheepish expression on Mike's face.

"A friend from 9th grade back in high school when Bella, Ang, Eric and I were all still at the same school," Mike said.

"Yeah, a friend who already had a boyfriend during the time she pursued Mike," Bella added.

"What can I say, I'm irresistible!"

"So irresistible, she chose her boyfriend over you?" Bella said.

"Oooo, burn!" Chris said and made a sizzling noise.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Mike said, "This whole park _is_ burning."

"Ha ha. That was totally a dad joke," Bella said with a groan. "Let's go back home and rejoin the others with our stories of wit and valor."

.-.-.

* * *

By Wednesday, the fires were contained and college classes resumed. While the edges of the school were blackened and singed, the school itself was still mostly green and unharmed. Bella joined her friends in the cafeteria at lunch and found them busy sharing their fire stories.

"Did your house become a ward for homeless animals?" Mike asked with a grin when she joined them.

"Nah. They packed all the animals up just in case, but then the wind changed. Our house is only a ward for our own personal zoo at the moment," Bella said.

"Normal people eat chickens not play with them," Mike retorted.

"Well, we never pretended to be normal. Besides, we do eat chickens, just not _our _chickens. The rule is if it has a name, we can't eat it," Bella responded.

"I guess I'm safe then. I have a name."

"You also aren't a chicken."

"Some people might not agree with you there."

"Ha ha. Well, you do have a fowl mouth," Bella said with a wink.

"Now who is the cocky one?" Mike responded, his small green eyes glowing with mirth.

"Enough!" Lauren said, while twisting a lock of blond hair behind her ear and glaring at both of them. "Can you two quit it with the puns? I'm trying to eat here!"

"You can't eat if they are making puns?" Chris asked.

"No. They are going to make me throw up, they are so bad," Lauren said.

"Come, Bella, we are unappreciated here by these naysayers. I will walk you to your class and we can pun-ish each other the whole way," Mike said while taking Bella's arm.

"Enough. That was _really_ terrible," Bella said with a groan.

"K. K. No more," Mike said and hid his self-satisfied smirk behind his arm. They left the cafeteria and were immediately bathed in heat and sunshine radiating off the pavement. "Actually, I wanted to drag you away for another reason. Nessie is bringing Jacob lunch today. I didn't think you'd want to be around for that," Mike said, growing serious.

"Aww. Mike. Thanks. That was really thoughtful. I have to get used to being around them though. It won't do me any good if everyone is making sad faces at me and watching my expression every moment whenever we are around each other," Bella said.

"Is it getting any better?"

"Yeah. Lauren and Jessica have laid off me a little. And I'm determined to move on with life. What about you? Do you even see Michelle anymore?"

"She left for college last week so I should be safe from unexpected sightings for the time being. Like you said, I'm determined to move on with life too. I don't want to pine for what used to be and miss out on what I could have, you know?" Mike said and sat on the wall outside Bella's class. She still had another half hour before class started so she sat on the wall beside him. His long legs managed to meet the pavement, but hers swung freely, a few inches shy of the ground.

"Yeah. That makes sense," she said, swinging her sandals and staring at her toes. There was an undercurrent to his comments that sent off warnings in her head and she fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Bella, we are good friends, yeah?"

"Ummm, yeah…"

"We have fun together and we've seen each other through some pretty crazy seasons of life?"

"Mike, where are you going with this?"

"Hear me out, k? It's just, I think we could be good together. I know you might not be ready for something serious yet and I respect that. I just wanted you to know that I'd like to give it a try. We can still be friends and do what we always do, just add in a few adventures with only the two of us to see how it goes. I'm not asking for commitment, I'm just asking for a chance."

"Mike, I…I don't know if I can see you in that way. You've always been such a good friend and brother to me," Bella said, biting her lip and watching his reaction closely.

"I know! I see you the same way. Look, honestly, I am not expecting this to really go anywhere except for us to have fun and get back into the dating scene slowly and in a comfortable way. No expectations, no commitment. Let's just hang out and have fun."

"What did you have in mind?" Bella asked, still unsure.

"Sunday. Let's go on a picnic after church," Mike said.

"Fine."

"K. I'll also need three love notes a week and for you to wear a shirt that says 'Property of Mike' on it."

"No chance."

"It was worth a try. Oh, and Bella, for the record, Jacob is an idiot."

"No, he's not."

"Yeah, he really is."

"Thanks, Mike."

Bella watched Mike go before turning to see Edward leaning on the wall not far behind her. He was, once again, in jeans and a long sleeved orange shirt.

"Hey! You couldn't get your clothes back from Alice?" Bella asked, turning to face him and feeling embarrassed that anyone might have overheard her conversation with Mike.

"It will take bribing Seth with more sweets, I think," he answered.

"Seth?"

"My uncle's last born. I suspect he was in on the plot but I have not succeeded in breaking through his defenses yet. It will happen, though. He has a weakness for sweets that I plan to exploit," Edward said with a conspiratorial air that made his dark eyes flash with mischief.

"Good luck!" Bella said. "I see you survived the fires."

"Yes. Though my cousin in Uganda called me to make sure I was still alive. The international news made it sound as though the entire state had been evacuated. I had to assure him, indeed, I am still alive and not in danger. He told me I should come home though since it is so dangerous here. I told him that I laugh in the head of danger."

"You mean the face of danger?"

"Yes. That's what I said. The danger has worked to my benefit this time. I enjoyed the additional time to read and prepare for exams."

Bella jumped off the wall to enter the now opened classroom. Dr. Banner silently handed out instruction sheets for their first big project.

"Now, class, with a partner, you will need to visit some type of scientific center or museum of learning that somehow deals with biology and write a research paper based on a topic that sparks your interest. You can go to the Los Angeles Zoo, the Long Beach Aquarium, the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum, Sea World or any other location that you clear with me. I have included all the specifics for your research and your paper here. Now, I want you all to discuss ideas with your class mates for five minutes and come to me with any ideas or questions you have," he said before turning to shuffle the papers on his desk and hand out instructions sheet to each student.

"This should be fun!" Bella said enthusiastically. "I love field trips! Any of those locations could be a lot of fun. Do you want to work together?"

Edward gave a brief glance around the room at the other students before coming back to meet her gaze. For the first time, she realized she had never seen him talk to anybody else in their class. She wondered if he spoke more in his other classes.

"We can be partners. What do you think you'd like to do?" He asked and quickly glanced through the guidelines for the assignment again.

"I'd love to go to the zoo," she said after thinking for a few moments. "It's been awhile. Besides, then we could write our paper on zebras or naked mole rats or something awesome like that."

"Yes. I think I would like to visit a lion. Then I can tell people I had to leave Africa and come to America before I could see a lion," he said.

"Wait, you've never seen a lion?" Bella asked, mouth agape.

"Of course I have! I had a pet lion growing up," he said with a grin.

"Really? That's so cool!"

He burst into laughter and gave her a sly sideways glance.

"No! Who has pet lions? You should have seen your expression!"

"Very funny," she responded, rolling her eyes, her voice missing his obvious humor.

"No, I saw a lion at the zoo in Kampala once. I think I would like to be able to tell people I had to see a lion in America. Then they will make the same face I just saw you make, with your mouth open like a fish catching flies," he said, as he opened his mouth in mimicry of a hungry fish.

"Hey!" Bella said, laughing and slapping him in the shoulder. "No fair! How am I supposed to know any different?"

"Common sense!" he said.

"Ugh. Or not so common," she said. "Anyways, here's my phone number." She slipped him a torn sheet of notebook paper and he took it.

"Do you have a car?" he asked.

"I do," Bella said.

"If you are willing, we can go together, yes?" Then he grinned widely.

"Yep! Sounds like fun!"

.-.-.


	4. Chapter 4: Adventures

**Chapter 4: Adventures**

* * *

The strong winds beat against her car as she drove on the freeway between the hills connecting the two valleys. It would take very little for another fire to catch, though there wasn't much left to burn here. The brown sandstone stood in stark contrast to the blackened ashes of the burned brush and oaks. Her heart still sank every time she saw the charred remains of her favorite hiking hills.

She pulled off the freeway and drove past the large suburbia-meet-horse-country homes that formed her neighborhood. She sighed in relief when she pulled open the front door to the empty house. It was all hers this weekend. She'd have to wake up early to let out the chickens and come home in time to keep them from becoming coyote-fodder at night, but otherwise, the house was hers. She could live on peanut butter, dance through the whole house in her pajamas, and invite friends over till the wee hours of the morning every day if she wished.

She dropped her textbook heavy backpack onto the couch and made her way to the kitchen. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, had been entirely conquered by chickens. Every space available was buried in pictures or statues of some kind of ridiculous bird. Her mother never could do anything half way.

Bella opened the cabinet with a more resounding bang than she originally intended and was rewarded with a brand new jar of crunchy peanut butter. She generously lathered peanut butter on sweet apple slices and sighed in happiness as she plotted how much she could get done before she would need to head to work. She looked around the open spaces between the connected living room and dining room. Her grandmother's paintings hung on the walls and her dad's collection of trophies and metals covered all the shelves. It felt simultaneously lonely and peaceful to have it all to herself.

It had been weeks since she really saw her dad and brother. She had to admit that she missed them. Charlie-a school cop nearing retirement age, now spent every spare moment he had either at a bike race or preparing for a bike race or recovering from a bike race. Her mother and brother's recent (re)entry into the obsession only further fueled his flame.

Her grand teenage rebellion had been to say "no" to cycling as soon as she was old enough to have a say. She no longer was forced to endure the tedium of unending days by the side of hot roads watching the cyclists zip past her. She no longer feared for her life on the back of a tandem where Charlie zipped down a hill faster than should be humanly possible on such small wheels. She no longer had to bandage wound after wound from the unavoidable falls that accompanied the sport.

However, that also meant that she was the odd duck out in the household. The three of them happily toured the country. And Bella stayed at home. She did not wish to be with them, but she did wish she saw them more.

Her father, while quite fond of her, rarely involved himself in her affairs. As long as she took care of herself, stayed out of everyone else's way, and didn't rock the boat, she could do as she pleased. Bella…only got good grades-hardly something to be proud of. She could get straight A's in all subjects except P.E.-the one class she was supposed to have inherited the inborn genetic capacity to thrive in. She much preferred a good book to constant activity. And she did not feel the compulsive need to compete at everything.

Her younger brother, Liam, thrived in areas she could not. After all, he was the Swan who could tan and not sunburn, the one with lovely brown skin instead of freckled, pasty white. He was the Swan who didn't get Grandma Swan's nose, but did get Grandpa Swan's stamina and love for competition. While he did not prove so apt a scholar, he did show interest in racing, and that was far more important. He made sure to remind her as often as he could-after all, only one Swan child could be the favored one at any given time.

She would never be as strong, as athletic, or as fierce as her mother. Renee had always had a reputation as a great beauty. She never lacked admirers and couldn't understand her daughter. She both disappointed in and delighted in their differences. It was as if she could never quite forgive Bella for not being exactly the same as her. Renee was the bright, shining sun in their household. She expected the rest of the family to orbit her whims as obedient planets, basking in her light, but never forgetting her place firmly in the center.

And Bella was simply Bella. She didn't mean to be the family rebel but she couldn't help it. So, she stayed home alone while the rest of the family wandered and adventured.

"Of course I can handle it fine," she'd told her mother. "I'm an adult."

Then she immediately called Angela to make sure she wouldn't have to stay home alone at all. "Please, Ang. You know I've never recovered from that episode of the Twilight Zone. I just can't handle those dark windows at night."

"I'll be there," Angela said. "Without any episodes of the Twilight Zone to traumatize you."

ooooooooooo

* * *

Bella looked forward to time with her best friend and eagerly watched her clock during the slow hours of work till she was finally off. The back door of Bella's room banged as Angela entered, still smelling of pie, and came in carrying a backpack, her guitar, and her roller-blades. She dropped her load onto the floor and crushed Bella into her hug so strong it could fix any ailment.

"You ready for this?" Angela said. Her large, hazel eyes sparkled with happy mischief.

"Of course!" Bella said.

"Let me stick the rest of the dinner in the fridge and change," Angela said. She opened the door of the bedroom and gave a squawk of surprise.

"Ummm, Bella-why is there a chicken in your laundry room?"

"Oh. That's Pookie. She's sick and so she has to sleep inside until she gets better. That reminds me. I need to give her the next dose of medicine."

"She's glaring at me as if I insulted her mother," Angela said.

Bella pulled a syringe and bottle out of the cabinet and glanced over into the corner. The fluffy grey hen sitting in the dog carrier did fix them both with a decidedly displeased stare.

Angela laughed. "Well, she can't get out of that cage, right? I don't want her trying to murder us in our sleep."

"Nah, she's stuck in there. She might flap around but she can't do anything else. She's looking pretty miserable. I hope she doesn't die. We always have a chicken die when mom is on vacation and she cries every time."

"Come on. Get your roller-blades."

"Going."

ooooooooooooooooooo

* * *

"Here, Bella. Lay the blanket here!" Mike said. He helped spread the old plaid blanket under the spicy shade of the pepper tree in Bella's backyard.

"I've prepared a feast for you, chica," Mike said as pulled out two Subway sandwiches, a can of pineapple, two plastic forks, and two cans of strawberry soda.

"Thanks, Mike. This looks great!" Bella said as she tried to get comfortable. After a full weekend with Angela and a long morning at church, her introversion was beginning to win out over her social skills. Still, she had promised and so she would push through. Mike's dimpled grin was a bit too broad and his foot a bit too close to hers as they ate in companionable chit chat.

"Do you remember that time in 9th grade when we all went bowling after the homecoming banquet?"

"Of course! I almost killed myself trying to bowl in my platforms and Teresa broke her dress straps when she got her strike. If I remember properly, you were mighty pleased with yourself for being the only guy with five girls."

"Yeah. What can I say? I'm a chick magnet," Mike said and broke into a grin as he pushed her foot with his.

"You sure are. Look over there. Polly, Wolly, and Doodle are drawn to your magnetism," Bella said and gestured towards the three red hens pecking the ground near the base of the pepper tree.

"No, they are drawn to my sandwich, not my masculine charms."

"I thought the display of the sandwich was part of your masculine charms."

"Bella Swan, are you calling me charming?"

"Definitely. Mike the chicken charmer. You've got natural talent," Bella said and threw a piece of pineapple at him. The three hens rushed to eat it off him before he could brush it off and Mike burst into laughter. His laughter faded into an awkward silence and his pale face lost all evidence of joviality.

"Seriously, Bella, do you think I've changed much since we were 14?" he said.

"Of course! I'd hope so. We were all painfully awkward back then. I mean, besides the obvious height and lack of braces now, you are also more mature and more confident than you were back then."

"You've changed too. I mean, besides the obvious height…oh wait…you never grew taller…and the lack of braces….oh wait…you never had braces….you are so much more…."

"Able to kick your butt for making fun of my height? Yeah, keep going down that road, chicken charmer, and I'll call the roosters over to teach you a lesson."

Mike laughed again and held out a plastic knife to ward off any roosters plotting an attack. He finished off his remaining sandwich and grew quiet. He swallowed strongly and turned to face her. He stared straight into her eyes till she felt compelled to blush and look away, her stomach roiling with unwelcome nervousness.

"Bella, uh, OK, so here's something I've been meaning to say," he began with a slight stammer. "I've known you forever. Ok, maybe forever and a half. I've watched you grow so much and I have to admit, I'm completely captivated by the woman you've become. Bella, you are beautiful, fun, intelligent, kind…you are everything I could ever ask for. I just…Bella, give me a chance. I know you've been through a lot and might not be totally ready yet, but give me a chance."

"Woah. What happened to 'easing back into the dating scene' and 'no expectations and no commitment'?" Bella replied. She struggled to meet the intense gaze in his light green eyes and pulled a strand of hair behind her ears.

"What I said still stands. I just wanted to be honest about how I felt first so you knew that I don't have expectations of you, but you _can_ have expectations of me. I don't expect commitment out of you, but I _am_ committed to you."

"I told you I'll give you a chance, but just for fun right now. We can try it out, but I'm not really ready for anything serious right now."

"K. I'll take it," Mike said and picked up her hand in his. He stared at her fingers for a long moment before meeting her gaze with one so adoring that Bella almost changed her answer immediately.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Bella jumped up from the hammock when she heard a familiar car engine approach. She quickly ran down the stairs to throw her arms around Angela who, once again, smelled distinctly of pie.

"I brought you chocolate cream!" Angela said with a grin as she held up a small box.

"If you are trying to win my heart, it's now yours," Bella said and grabbed the box from her.

"Bella, spill," Angela said a few minutes later. The girls sat sprawled around Bella's room amidst a flurry of textbooks and notebook paper.

"Where? My cup is here," Bella said, looking up from her history book towards her water mug.

"No, I mean_ spill_ spill. What's going on with you and Mike? He's going around telling everyone you're his girlfriend now."

"He is? Girlfriend? I hadn't realized we had a title."

"Wait, so there's something to be titled?"

"Yes…no…kinda?"

"That sounds promising."

"We are just hanging out-_for fun_. Mike said he really likes me and wants me to go on dates with him, but expects no commitment right now from me."

"But…Mike? Really? He's your rebound."

"Not exactly."

"Well, you're _his_ rebound then."

"Maybe."

"Alright, well, do you like him?" Angela said and gave her a pointed stare.

"Kind of? I mean, we are great friends and have a lot of fun. Maybe it will grow into something more?"

"Good luck with that. I will keep my nose out of it and support you in whatever you decide."

"But you think I'm making the wrong decision."

"I didn't say that. I trust your judgement. I just don't trust Mike's."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella said. She closed her textbook and rolled onto her back to face the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling.

"I mean, we could all tell that Mike's been into you for a long time. I'm just worried he is acting out of desperation and it will break_ his_ heart in the end. For him, it grew into something more a long time ago. It just never has for you. I'm just not sure that 'dating' or whatever you are doing now is going to change that."

"Well, I wanted to at least give him a chance. I agreed to go on some dates, but I am _not _his girlfriend."

"As I said, I support you."

"That's why you're the best."

"And don't you forget it!" Angela said with a grin and she threw a balled up roll of paper at Bella's head.

"Shhh! I'm studying!"

"Right. If that's what they call it these days."

Oooooooooooooooooooo

* * *

The doorbell rang. Bella saw a hand wave out of a silver Volvo before driving away. She opened the door to find Edward standing on her front porch. He now wore crisp khaki pants and a mahogany polo shirt.

"Good morning, Bella," he said and politely shook her hand.

"Hey!" she said. "You made it! I see you got your clothes back," Bella said and motioned to his outfit.

Edward's face broke into a brilliant grin. "Yes! I had to attend a gathering at my uncle's church and so my uncle forced Seth to tell him the secret. Alice hid all my clothes inside a box marked with Rosalie's name on it, knowing I would never open a box that belongs to Rosalie."

Bella laughed. "So, are you feeling more comfortable now?"

"I think I have learned be more flexible and so I suppose I will have to thank Alice for making me try new things." He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "but I may keep my thanks to myself or she will force me to eat a sandwich."

Bella laughed again and also dropped her voice to join in his secret. "We can't have that. I won't tell her if you don't."

Edward flashed her another bright smile that lit up his dark eyes.

"Well, let's go find some animals," she said. She grabbed her backpack from inside the door, locked up, and pulled out her car keys.

"Welcome to my truck," Bella said as she jerry-rigged the faded orange door to get the lock to open. "My locks broke so I have to be a little creative when I'm opening the doors. It may be a little worn and a little old and a little held together internally with duct tape, but it's strong and can fit a surf board," Bella said with a wink as she got into the driver's side.

"Duct tape?" Edward said and gaze a dubious glance at the ratted interior of the truck.

"It fixes everything. Don't doubt the truck."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said. "It looks as though it belongs in a museum."

Bella gave a mock gasp and spoke words of consolation to her dashboard hula dancer. "He doesn't mean it," she said. "Don't listen to him."

He grinned. "You enjoy surfing?" he asked.

"Yeah! A family friend dropped off their surf board for storage so I tried it out this summer. It was fun, but I've only tried it three times. Have you ever surfed?" she asked.

"I have not. To be honest, I have never been to the ocean," Edward responded.

"Never! Not even in Uganda?"

Edward gave a short burst of laughter. "Bella, Uganda is a landlocked country. The nearest ocean is an entire country away."

"I got that. I mean, ok fine. I phrased that wrong. What I meant to ask is have you ever been to any ocean?"

"I have not."

Bella let out a small gasp. "No! That has to be changed. You should come to the beach with us," Bella said. "A bunch of us are going on Friday after school. It will be cold, but we'll have some wet suits and build a bonfire and not everyone is going to swim. Wanna come?"

Edward gave a half-hearted shrug and didn't answer.

Ooooooooo

* * *

They stood near the flamingos with both of their Los Angeles zoo maps open before them to plot out their course. The autumn sun beat down on them with a heat that had lost its summer intensity. The songs of a menagerie of birds surrounded them on all sides.

Edward looked up and gave a slightly horrified gasp as he saw a zoo worker with a tarantula on her hand. The large spider crawled up to her shoulder as she spoke to the surrounding group of children.

"These female California tarantulas can live up to 25 years," she said and the children gaped at her and listened in rapt attention. "Though the males only live seven or eight years."

"I see those hiking sometimes," Bella said, bringing Edward's attention away from the tarantula and back to her. "Not often, but every now and then."

"A few months ago, a woman at my uncle's church asked me about the spiders in Uganda. 'You must have the biggest spiders!' she said," Edward said, raising his voice to imitate a falsetto.

"Do you?"

"No! That there is the largest spider I have ever seen-and you just said they are from California. But I had to tell her that Uganda had such big spiders."

"Wait-you didn't correct her?"

Edward gave a look of mock affront. "Of course not! She is a good friend of my uncle and she was too too excited. Besides, she would not have believed me even if I corrected her. She was convinced that Uganda must have the world's largest spiders."

"And you just let her keep on believing it?" Bella said, slightly incredulous, slightly amused.

"I know when to pick my battles," Edward said. "That is one I have no hopes of winning. Another would be the assumption that I grew up surrounded by the world's deadliest wild animals. Yet, I have seen more dangerous animals in the wild in California than I ever did in Uganda. In Kampala, we had monkeys and chameleons and marabou stork. Very boring. In Los Angeles, bears break into people's houses, coyotes steal their house cats, mountain lions roam through neighborhoods, and venomous rattle snakes are found on walking trails. In Uganda, we have deadly mambas but in my entire life, I've never seen one. I have barely spent half a year in Los Angeles, and I've already come across two rattlesnakes."

He finished with a dramatic shudder for emphasis.

"You make a good point," Bella said. "But you should still try to correct people. How are they going to learn if you don't tell them?"

Edward shrugged and his eyes flashed dangerously. "Let us go find the lions," he said with a grin.

Ooooooooooooooooo

* * *

"I have two votes: naked mole rats cause they are super awkward and echidnas cause they are cool," Bella said. They both chewed on chicken fingers and fries at the snack shop. Bella could already feel the beginnings of a sunburn starting on her forehead.

"Eki-what?" Edward said.

"Echidnas. I had never even heard of them before today. Those awkward, spiny little ducky marsupials we saw in the Australia exhibit. Don't you remember? Did you know they are fireproof? That's just cool."

Edward shrugged. "I did not notice those. I was too busy looking at the kangaroos."

"Well, both of those would be interesting reports. What do you think? We need to decide on something quick so we can do our observation the rest of the afternoon."

"I would enjoy researching the lions, but they are very lazy and will not be very interesting to observe. The otters or one of the primate species would prove more interesting for observation."

"You are right. If we are going to be stuck watching them for the next two hours or so, we better pick one that's fun to see. Let's choose the otters."

Oooooooooooooooo


	5. Chapter 5: Terrible Ideas

**Chapter 5: Terrible Ideas**

* * *

Bella didn't even bother to make sure her jeans were clean when she rolled out of bed. This far into the semester, she no longer had the energy to rebel through her clothing choices. Instead, she made sure she remembered to eat breakfast and that she had shoes this time. She didn't manage to check her socks to make sure they matched. They didn't.

The pile of reports, tests, and projects threatened her with a flurry of sleepless nights in her future. She would miss sleeping.

Mike insisted on meeting her at the parking lot with a wide smile and a very tight hug. Erik and Chris stood behind him giving him a thumbs up.

"So, Bella-you and Mike are dating!" Chris said with his typical contagious enthusiasm. Bella glared at Mike. He didn't notice. Instead, he took her backpack and insisted on walking her to class.

He was there again to walk her to lunch.

"Here, beautiful, sit next to me," he said much too loudly as they joined the rest in the cafeteria. His arm somehow snuck around the back of her chair and inched closer and closer to her as lunch progressed. Jessica and Lauren began sharing whispers back and forth until Chris (not known for his skills in subtlety) cleared up their confusion.

"Yeah. They are dating now. Since Sunday."

Bella groaned internally. So much for "unserious" and "easing into the dating scene". She couldn't help but feel a bit guilty at Mike's happy puppy-like expression on his face as he tried so hard to get her attention. Unfortunately, her internal lack of enthusiasm at seeing him and even less enthusiasm when he tried to hold her hand or not-so-slyly put his arm around her waist only increased her sense of guilt.

"Mike, I'm just not ready for PDA's yet," Bella said as she shrugged out from under his arm for the umpteenth time and took her books back as they neared the library. "It's just too soon, ok?"

"Sure," Mike said and quickly averted his eyes. "I'll talk to you tonight, ok?"

"K."

ooooooooo

* * *

Bella made her way to her last class of the day. She was close enough to being on time that she sighed in relief. Initially, she thought she wouldn't make it.

"Bella, what's in the bag?" Edward asked as Bella sat beside him. He glanced down at the large paper Vons bag. She looked around the class cautiously, as if she had just stolen the crown jewels, and placed the bag closer to her desk.

"What bag?" she asked with an innocent tone. The bag in question suddenly jumped and made a scratching sound.

"Yes. The bag that just moved. Did you bring a puppy to class?"

"No. I most certainly did not bring a puppy to class. That would be a terrible idea."

Edward lifted one eyebrow and looked at Bella, then looked at the bag. It shifted slightly.

"Ok, fine. It's a squirrel."

"A squee-rrrell?" he said, rolling the "r" in the middle of the word.

"Is that seriously how you pronounce it? That's awesome!"

"No. It's phonetic. You Americans forget to pronounce half the word. It is distinctly two syllables and not the one you condense it to when you say 'skwerl'."

"Huh. I guess that is how it's spelled. I never thought about it."

"You are trying to avoid explaining why you have a wild rodent in a paper bag in our biology class."

"I found it."

"So I assumed."

"It was injured. I saw it fall off an electrical line a little bit ago. I think it has a broken arm. It was unconscious until now. I am going to make sure it gets to a veterinarian later. But, until I can get it help, I didn't want to leave it helpless and alone on the pavement and it's too hot to stay in my car. So I found a bag and brought it with me. I put some acorns in there in case it wakes up. I don't think it will make a lot of noise."

Edward watched her with an incredulous expression and then burst into a peel of deep-chested laughter. Tears made silver rivers down his dark cheeks as he laughed. He quickly brushed off the tears and became serious again.

"Bella. It is a wild rodent…and one that probably carries the plague and a host of diseases. Please tell me you did not touch it."

"I didn't touch it with my hands. I used my sweater and leather gloves from my emergency box in my car."

"Please burn those later."

"No chance. I like that sweater," she said and scooted the bag behind her backpack further.

"You know, Jasper and I could take care of that for you," Edward said in a whisper and gave her a meaningful glance, as if imparting to her a great secret.

"I'm not sure I trust you with George. What exactly do you mean by 'take care'?"

"Now you've given the rodent a name?"

"Yes. George the Third. George the First ran away. George the Second is buried in our yard. So, this is George the Third."

"You have fetish for squirrels? Or do you eat them?"

"No! I most certainly don't eat them! Why? Do you?"

"He'd be delicious with a bit of curry powder and salt."

"Argh! Get away! I thought you said it was disease-ridden?" Bella said and pushed the bag even farther from Edward. He laughed.

"Relax, my tribe does not eat rodents. However, Jasper is very adept at quickly killing rodents. He can kill a large rat with his bare hands in under five seconds."

"I don't think I ever want to shake his hand again. Poor rats."

"You have an affinity for rats as well?"

"Yes! They are so cute!"

Edward wrinkled his nose in disgust and exclaimed something in another language. It was at that moment that the bag suddenly tipped over and a brown, furry object exploded across the classroom. Students began to scream and jump on their desks. Dr. Banner looked up in shock.

"What is that?" He roared.

"George!" Bella shouted and ran towards the fleeing squirrel, bag in hand. "Oh no! George! Come back!"

She chased the squirrel across the class, squeaking in dismay when the squirrel found the open door and disappeared out of it. It climbed a tree, though rather clumsily with its injured limb. Bella soon gave up and turned around to face the class, face flushed like an overripe tomato.

"Sorry, Dr. Banner. It was hurt and unconscious. I wanted to make sure it was ok."

Dr. Banner gave a woeful sigh and his face had an expression akin to one undergoing a root canal.

"Bella, please, no more live animals in class."

"Yes, Dr. Banner."

"Now, everyone, let's turn to page 200 of our textbooks and begin our discussion on genetics."

Bella returned to her seat and placed the empty paper bag under her desk. She looked over and saw Edward covering his mouth with his arm, muffling his laughter, tears streaming freely down his face.

"Laugh it up, squirrel eater," she hissed and crossed her arms over her chest.

Oooooooooo

* * *

After class, Bella and Edward sat on a picnic table outside the library. Their outline and notes for their report were held down by their heavy biology textbooks. Bella continued to scribble notes furiously in her notebook as Edward perused her recent additions to their report.

"Alright, the North American river otter is able to keep water out of their noses when they are submerged," she said as she wrote. "What else did you get about their life cycle?"

Their work was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Bella!" Mike said and he ran up to where they sat. "Hi!"

"Uh, hi Mike," she said and bit the top of her pen.

"You're still here!"

"Yeah. We are working on our biology project."

Mike's eyes glanced over at Edward and noticed him for to first time. Edward gave him a polite nod.

"Will you be here much longer? My class got out a little early. We could, you know, go out to dinner tonight."

"Not tonight, Mike. I haven't seen my family in like a week and I promised I'd be home tonight."

"Ok. Ok. I see. I see. Let's talk later, then."

"Ok."

"I'll miss you till then!" he said with an expression she assumed he hoped would display all his heartfelt emotion.

She groaned and leaned her head on the table. Edward raised an eyebrow in question.

"Your boyfriend?"

"I think so. It was an accident."

"An accident?"

"Well, he kinda asked me to sorta date him and I kinda said yes but thought I wasn't really saying yes and now I kinda think it was the wrong thing to say," Bella said and hid her face on her notebook again. She looked up and found Edward still watching her through those dark, slanted eyes.

"Thank you for clarifying the situation so eloquently," he said. He didn't bother to hide his amusement as he chuckled.

"Shut up. I know I'm a mess. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Would you like to have his children?" he asked, in earnest this time.

"What! No!"

"Then you should not have agreed. If you are not ready to be married by him and bear him children than you should not raise his hopes."

Bella stared at him, not sure whether he was joking or serious. His face remained stoic.

"Wait-are you being serious?"

"Of course," he said and tilted his head to the side to try to read her expression.

"I don't even know what to say to that. Hey-so the North American river otter," she said, holding up Edward's notes again. He did not fight the change of subject or inquire further.

000000000

* * *

They were nearly finished with their outline when they were interrupted by another familiar voice.

"_Omuzungu, ogambaki," _Emmett boomed as he jogged towards them from the parking lot. He jumped onto the table and slid into their carefully stacked papers. Paper fluttered all over the ground around them. Edward groaned and tried to push Emmett off the table with his shoulder. Emmett only grinned and didn't move an inch.

"Hey, Emmett," she said.

"Bellarina, I haven't seen you in too too long. Tell me, why is it that you hang out with Edward at the zoo but you never hang out with me," he said and gave a pitiful pouting face. She laughed.

"Come to the beach on Friday. I already invited Edward. You should come too," she responded. "It won't be anywhere near as exciting as learning about echidnas, but we've got a good group going to hang out."

"The beach? And Edward agreed to this?"

Edward stared at both of them and did not answer.

"That's what I thought," Emmett said. "What did I tell you, man? Nobody's gonna understand you if you try to do that. Bella, Edward appreciates the invite but he can't make it Friday cause Rosalie would kill him."

Edward gave a slightly disgruntled click under his breath and glared at Emmett.

"Oh. That's cool-I mean, not the killing him part, of course, but the being busy part. No worries. Another time."

"There better be another time. Are you two done school-ogizing here cause I gotta go pick up Seth from soccer practice."

"Yes. We are all through for the day," Edward said. "Bella, till next time-oh, and please avoid squirrels."

"I'll do my best. I gotta admit that might not have been my best life decision."

"She brought a squirrel to biology class today," Edward told Emmett to clear up his confusion. "You should have seen the professor's face when the rodent ran through the classroom. I did not know it was possible for someone's face to turn that color of red."

Emmett's booming laugh filled the courtyard around them as the pair turned to leave.


	6. Chapter 6: Questions

**WE ARE VISITORS**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Questions**

* * *

It was unusually cold and grey for October. Bella, Angela, Ben, and Mike piled out of Bella's truck and unloaded surfboards from the back. Two other cars pulled up next to them, releasing the rest of the beach crew into the nearly empty parking lot.

"Y'all are gonna freeze your backsides off," Lauren said with a disdainful glance at the wet suit Bella was squeezing into.

"That's what the wet suits for," Chris said with a good-natured grin. He bumped Lauren with his shoulder and then unloaded an armful of firewood. "And, that's why we drove all the way to T.O. instead of kickin' it in Malibu. _Bonfire_!"

"I've got the marshmallows!" Jessica said and held up a plastic bag. Her pronouncement caused Ben, Mike, Tyler, Eric and Chris to descend into Sandlot quotes and manly giggles.

"Dude! These waves are huge!" Chris said with a whistle as they neared the ocean. "It's gonna be gnarly for the newbs."

He gave a sympathetic glance to Bella and Ben before ushering them to the water for their lesson. The rest of the group huddled around the bonfire and underneath blankets. When Jacob and Nessie arrived, he passed his guitar around and Angela joined him with hers as the rest took turns cooking s'mores.

"Dude, my knees are turning purple, it's so cold!" Bella said between chattering teeth as she pulled her surfboard to her again. True to his prediction, the waves pummeled her as if she were attempting to corral a sea serpent instead of riding a wave with a surfboard. More times than not, she found herself turning somersaults beneath the waves and bashing her limbs against the hard surface of her yellow surfboard. A red trickle of blood painted her legs as she came up sputtering and coughing up the thick saltwater yet again.

"You stood once! That was sweet!" Chris called over his shoulder. He was the pro. On a normal day, he could do a handstand on a surfboard. He made surfing look like a dance and not like a sport with the ease and grace with which he did it. Ben and Bella…made it look like some form of masochistic punishment.

"You going again?" Chris called as Bella righted herself, untangled her leash, and wiped the blood of her leg with a grimace.

"Of course!" she said. She fought her way into the waves again until she could lay on board and paddle. In between the waves, she watched the reflection of the gray, cool sky against the fathomless green depths, and there was no longer a delineation between herself and the sea. She bobbed up and down, straddling her surfboard as if it were a saddled horse, and drank in the waves, feeling them in viscerally within.

Another set of wave upset the moment of peace, throwing her into the water and pounding her against the surfboard again. She feared when her legs were no longer purple from cold they would instead be purple from the myriad of bruises she could feel developing. As she sputtered to the surface again, she turned to look back to where Chris perfectly caught another wave and rode it to the shore, gracefully alighting in the shallows.

"I need a marshmallow," Bella said over her shoulder and she slowly made her way to the glittering bonfire.

Three beach towels, a sweatshirt, and a cup of hot chocolate later, Bella's teeth finally stopped chattering. She glanced between the parking lot and her phone again and caught Jessica staring at her.

"Who are you waiting for?" Jessica asked.

"No one," Bella said with a shrug. "I invited a friend from school to come, but he said he wouldn't be able to make it. But I wanted to make sure. You never know. Things change."

Bella tried to hide her slight grimace when she found herself enveloped beneath Mike's arm. It was warm, so she couldn't despise it that much, but it still made her uncomfortable.

"Which friend?" Jessica pushed.

"My partner in biology," Bella said. "Edward Cullen."

Tyler gave a dubious snort before catching himself. "Good luck with that," he said.

"What do you mean?" Bella asked, irritation in her voice.

Tyler shrugged but refused to answer, even after Bella prodded him a few more times.

"Don't worry about it," he said and threw a pile of sand at her feet.

"Fine," she said, without really meaning it.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

* * *

Bella sat on a swing set, lazily pushing herself back and forth with one foot, and staring at the beauty of the San Gabriel Mountains around her. Her mother perched nearby, her hazel eyes bold and fierce, her long brown hair chaotic and unruly in the warm breeze. But that was always Renee. She was like her sister's mustang-brown and wild and pushing at the gates of the pasture longing to get out, fighting bridles and reigns, simultaneously longing to be tamed and remain wild.

This trip was her idea. A weekend in the camper for "family bonding time". Her idea of a vacation involved days as full as a Thanksgiving turkey, jam-packed from sunrise to sunset with horseback rides, kayaking, shopping, museums, antique shops, and tours. Her body and her soul constantly twitched with relentless, insatiable energy and the need to go, to move, to run, to exert herself.

She could never understand Bella and her thirst for stillness. Bella longed for solitude, for reflection, for quiet as if it were a physical craving. She drank in hikes through the mountains, the sound of the gurgling stream, the colors of the sunset. She fed her soul with words inscribed in ink and paper from wizened saints who knew how to force their souls into the brittle frailty of language. She basked in the connections between people-playing cards with her little brother in the back of the camper, lessons in driving the manual car with Charlie during the miles of the open road, and storytelling with Renee on the swing set of the camp ground-those rare moments when the entire Swan family was trapped in one place at one time and forced to interact with each other. But Bella and Renee always seemed as different as night and day.

"How do I know he's the right one?" Bella asked, brown eyes fixed on her Converse. "We are friends and I like him but is that how love works? Is commitment enough?"

Renee looked at her and, in her usual bluntness that crashed through pretenses like a battering ram, she spoke. "Bella, you aren't married to him yet. If you don't like him enough, don't waste your time. You can't force yourself to love the guy."

She continued staring at her feet where her Converse drew little patterns in the dust. She bit her bottom lip and thought through how to appropriately word what she do desperately wanted to know. "How did you know with dad? How have you made it so long now with him?" She asked.

Renee gave a long sigh and leaned deeper onto the picnic table where she sat and watched her daughter. "When I was your age, my mother gave me two requirements to find in a husband: someone older than me who had a good job and a house. Your dad fit all those. Later on, I began to realize there's a bit more to it. It's also important to find someone who fills your needs and can relate with you on a heart level. You need to share passions and dreams and have things in common."

"I guess."

"Bella, you are still young. You have time. There's no hurry. Oh! Did I tell you I ran into Jacob at the mall last week?"

Bella's eyes shot up from her feet to meet her mother's again. Her mother's pleased expression made her heart jump into her throat and she groaned. "You _did not_ tell me that. What happened?"

"I found him hanging out with that new girl of his and, you better believe, I gave him a piece of my mind! I let him know you have a new boyfriend now and he better regret letting you go when he did – the idiot!"

"You didn't!" Bella said, her cheeks burning with mortification and barely suppressed horror. She groaned and hung her head into her hands. "I will never be able to look him in the face again."

Renee clicked her tongue and stood to loosely wrap her arms around Bella. "_You _aren't the one who should be embarrassed. He's lucky he got away with both balls still intact. If your aunt had her way…"

"_Do not_ allow Auntie Marge anywhere near Jacob. I'm pretty sure I'd never survive the embarrassment," Bella said. She gave a small jump off the swing and rubbed at her face to try to encourage her blush to dissipate more quickly.

"No promises, Bells. No one messes with our girl and gets away with it. Come on, let's go back. I want to get a bike ride in before it gets late."

They walked back to the campsite and found the men already performing magic with logs and newspaper and kindling in the fire pit, both grinning as if they were sending rockets to the moon as opposed to simply starting a campfire.

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

* * *

"Full house," Bella said and placed her cards onto the rough picnic table. Liam groaned.

"No fair. You cheated."

"I didn't cheat. It's called winning."

"No, it's called cheating and it's what you do."

"Did not."

"Did too."

Bella stuck her tongue out at her brother and pulled the deck of cards together to shuffle them again. She pulled another cookie from the paper plate between them.

"You've had enough of those, don't you think?" Liam said, taking the cookie from her. "The rest of us did a long bike ride. You didn't. You're fat enough." He pinched her arm and then motioned to his athletic, tanned fifteen year old frame. Overnight, the remnants of his baby fat had melted away into hard, lean muscles and he now towered over his older sister, much to his smug enjoyment.

Bella stole the cookie back and ate it promptly before her brother could take it back. Liam stole the rest of the plate away. While his attention stayed fixed on his sister, Charlie removed a handful of cookies from the plate and plopped them all in his mouth with an oversized crunch. Liam's eyes grew wide as he turned and saw the missing cookies.

Bella laughed. "Serves you right."

"Deal me in this round," Charlie said, spraying cookie crumbs over the table as he spoke. He gave his children a goofy, chocolatey grin and picked up the cards Bella dealt him.

"My turn to start," Liam said. In the flickering light of the campfire, his brown eyes held an almost golden glow and he pondered his cards carefully before choosing one to place on the table with a flourish.

Nearby the fire, Renee sat on a folding stool with her guitar. Every camping trip, her self-appointed task remained the same. She filled the campsite with old folk songs and belted out her renditions of "Greensleeves" and "Time in a Bottle" for all to hear. Renee's guitar was as quintessential a part of camping as s'mores and hunting for frogs and family bike rides.

"I win!" Liam shouted, jumping to his feet in excitement and upending the rest of the cookies onto the ground.

Bella rolled her eyes and placed her cards back into the deck. She closed her eyes and inhaled the thick scent of pine and smoke and earth around her.

"I saw a shooting star!" Charlie shouted in excitement and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Over there! I'm going to set up the telescope."

Renee found this exciting enough to pull her away from her music. She put her guitar away and came to where Charlie wrestled with the tall, white contraption. He adjusted the view till it pleased him and he gave a wide grin.

"Check it out!" he said. "I think I've found the International Space Station!"

Bella groaned. "Not again."

"Oooo! I want to see!" Renee said. She peered through and shouted in excitement when she saw the tiny moving speck of light.

"Kids! Come see!" Charlie said. Liam and Bella both rolled their eyes to each other but obeyed. They feigned the appropriate amount of enthusiasm required to appease their parents before Charlie began to fiddle again.

"I've got the moon now!" he said. "But the brightest star in the sky is here," he said as he pulled Renee to him to kiss her. Renee groaned in disgust and pushed him away.

"Charlie, your face. I told you. If you don't shave your face, I'm not shaving my legs. It's like kissing a porcupine."

Charlie gave a wide, goofy grin in response, which clearly communicated how Renee's threats failed to change his mind, and he pulled her to himself again. Bella and Liam ignored their parents and meandered back to their deck of cards.

"Double Solitaire?" Bella asked.

"You're on!" Liam said.

ooooooooooooooooo

* * *

Bella lay on the top bunk of the camper in her sleeping bag. Her headphones blared the soundtrack from "My Fair Lady" and adequately drowned out Charlie's snores. She couldn't sleep. From the long window, she could make out the journey of the stars between the silhouettes of the pine trees. Liam had long since left her alone in her thoughts and only disturbed her with the occasional movement in his sleeping bag beside her.

After a month of "dating" Mike, she didn't feel any more convinced than after their first picnic. Besides providing the bragging rights necessary for her mother to humiliate her to her ex, not much else had blossomed. She couldn't help but feel like the absence of Jacob had left her with a huge, gaping hole in her heart that hadn't been there before and, despite her attempts to fill it, she couldn't simply replace him with someone else.

Sweet, silly, kind Mike. When she thought of him, he reminded her of a fire that, when touched, doesn't burn. It puts forth no element of heat. It is visible, but not dangerous or life-changing. It simply is and it shines and is attractive and real, but it lacks strength. But sometimes she got butterflies in her stomach when he looked at her, his light green eyes so full of adoration-so similar to the expression their Yellow Lab gave her when she snuck him her leftover steak. She kept hoping that, just maybe, if given enough time, he could grow to fill the space Jacob left so glaringly barren.

Still, if she stopped avoiding the uncomfortable voice of honesty in her head, she doubted it.

oooooooooooooo

* * *

With the door of their study room in the library shut, they could continue their discussion on their report without gaining the ire of the other students who came to study (or to sleep) in the quiet of the cavernous, dark building. Edward's red pen scratched notes and edits into the margins of the latest copy of their report. He tapped the pen against his face, lost deep in thought.

"If I am understanding you, your family believes it is enjoyable to spend the night in the middle of the forest, separated from all the accouterments of civilization?" he asked, jarring Bella with his reversion to their earlier obligatory small talk.

She shrugged. "Yeah. It's nice to get into nature and get away from it all. I mean, we are in a camper-that's like a house on wheels-so we have a stove and fridge and bathroom and all, but, yeah. It's fun."

"If you carry your house with you, it is more understandable," Edward said. "Still, it is strange."

"Not for us-not that my family ever has been described as 'normal'-but most families I know go camping. Don't you ever do that back at home?"

"Willingly and for enjoyment? No. By necessity? Yes," he said. He did not elaborate further and Bella didn't push him. This evening, he sat as if he carried a weight on his shoulders and she let him remain in his silence, staring at the same line on his paper repeatedly, lost in his thoughts. He tapped his pen on the table in a light rhythm.

"May I ask you a question?" he said, turning the full intensity of his dark eyes onto her again and dropping his pen onto the table.

"Of course," she said. "I'm guessing it's about something other than river otters?"

He gave her a half-smile and wrestled internally. "Do I smell unpleasant?" he finally asked, stumbling awkwardly over the question as he asked it.

"Do you smell unpleasant?" Bella repeated, incredulous at the question. The look on Edward's face told her if it was possible for his complexion to show a blush, he would be glowing in embarrassment. She gave him a half-smile and leaned across the table to get close enough to inhale. As she did, she burst into giggles.

Edward's expression grew even more distraught and he hunched inward, as if a turtle pulling into his protective shell. Bella quickly pulled herself together and placed a hand on his shoulder in a way she hoped would be comforting.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. You just took me by surprise. You don't smell bad…you just don't smell like what I was expecting….I mean, ok, I'll just say it. You smell like baby powder. Here you are, a full grown man, and you smell like a baby. That took me by surprise. It's not a bad thing though. Why do you ask?"

Edward hardly looked comforted by her words, not that she could blame him. He licked his lips and wrung his hands together, then dropped his eyes from hers to stare at his hands.

"When I was coming here today, a woman walked past me and she stared at me as if I were doing something wrong. Then she held her nose as if I had not showered in a week and she crossed the street so she would not have to be near me. Even from across the street, she glared at me and still held her nose. I could not figure out what I had done to so offend her. I would not have asked you such a personal question otherwise. It has been bothering me ever since," Edward said, finally meeting her gaze again with such a timid, unsure expression that Bella couldn't help but give him a reassuring smile and squeeze his lean shoulder with her hand.

"That's weird," she said. "Maybe she was having a lousy day or had just stepped in dog poop or something."

"Perhaps," Edward said. He tilted his head to one side and looked at her through his slanted eyes. "My Vaseline," he said, now breaking into a brilliant grin, and he pointed to his arm. "Perhaps I should switch to unscented so I am not mistaken for a baby."

Bella laughed.

The pair continued to work through their report in companionable silence for another half hour, broken only by Edward's occasional mumbles to himself and Bella's phone beeping for occasional text messages.

"Dude, what's this?" Bella asked and pointed at some notes written in red ink on the margin of one page.

Edward took the page and read silently, mouthing the words as he read. Then he grinned again. "Do not mind that. I was simply…taking notes."

"Taking notes…on our conversation? 'Lousy day'…'dog poop'…'baby powder' is clearly written here," Bella said. "Do you normally take notes in the middle of regular conversations?"

"Of course. I was paying attention," he said, his smile growing even wider with a hint of mischief in it.

Bella snorted a laugh through her nose and shook her head. Edward handed her back her copy of the report and gathered his into his folder.

"I hear babies need at least ten to twelve hours of sleep at night if they are to grow properly," he said as he stood and stretched, towering over a foot over Bella as she also stood. "Till class on Wednesday."

"See ya then!" she said and they parted ways in the dimly lit parking lot.


End file.
